Kevin Durant sidelined again

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant underwent a minor procedure to help reduce pain and discomfort in his surgically repaired right foot, according to Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti.

Durant will be re-evaluated in a week. The expectation is he will return to play in the regular season.

"There's no new injury that's been created," Presti said. "It's just a matter of discomfort."

Durant underwent a procedure in October to repair a Jones fracture in his right foot. According to Presti, the fracture is healing as expected, but a screw inserted at the fifth metatarsal during the original procedure is rubbing against another bone, the cuboid bone, in another area, causing soreness and discomfort.

"Some pain in or around that cuboid bone is not unusual," Presti said. "It's actually somewhat expected during the recovery process. But in Kevin's case, it wasn't scaling down the level we had anticipated or the level the physicians had anticipated. So the next step would be to look at some other alternatives, which led us to this procedure."

To help alleviate the pain, Durant had a new screw inserted.

"The good news is that the fracture itself is healing excellently and from what the doctors conveyed to us we continue to feel very good about the prognosis moving forward," Presti said. "But in the short term, as he's continued to have this discomfort we wanted to determine the best way to alleviate it while still promoting the healing of the initial injury."

Durant began visibly experiencing pain two weeks ago against the Memphis Grizzlies and has tried to play through it. But as his pain has persisted, the Thunder looked at alternatives to reduce it.

"Most important to note here is the initial injury is progressing as anticipated and now what we're waiting to see is how the soreness is able to be accommodated," Presti said. "We do anticipate him being able to play during the regular season and then move forward."

Durant missed his 29th game this season Sunday, a 119-94 win over the visitingDenver Nuggets, after missing only 16 total in the first seven years of his career.

He missed the opening six weeks recovering from the original surgery, two weeks in December because of a right ankle sprain, then four games in January because of a sprained left big toe.

Durant, 26, is averaging 25.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists in 27 games this season.